Ireland's Action Plan on Aviation Emissions Reduction
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Principal contact/National Focal Point James Lavelle. Assistant Principal Officer Aviation Services and Security Division Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport 44 Kildare Street Dublin 2 IRELAND Telephone +353 1 604 1130 Fax +353 1 604 1699 Email: [email protected] Alternate contact Ivan Nolan. Executive Officer Aviation Services and Security Division Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport 44 Kildare Street Dublin 2 IRELAND Telephone +353 1 604 1248 Fax +353 1 604 1699 Email: [email protected] IRELAND’S ACTION PLAN ON AVIATION EMISSIONS REDUCTION- Contents INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................... 2 General approach .................................................................................................................... 2 Current State of aviation in Ireland ....................................................................................... 3 Air Traffic Control Service Provision ................................................................................. 4 Passenger and Freight Numbers ...................................................................................... 5 Main Air Routes ................................................................................................................... 7 Irish Aircraft Registrations .................................................................................................. 7 Main Irish Air Carriers and Fleet Characteristics ............................................................ 8 Aviation and employment ................................................................................................... 9 1. SUPRA-NATIONAL ACTIONS, INCLUDING THOSE LED BY THE EU ............... 10 AIRCRAFT RELATED TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT .......................................... 10 Aircraft emissions standards ........................................................................................ 10 Research and development ......................................................................................... 10 Technologies. ................................................................................................................. 10 Concept Aircraft. ............................................................................................................ 11 Demonstration Programmes ........................................................................................ 11 ALTERNATIVE FUELS..................................................................................................... 12 European Advanced Biofuels Flightpath .................................................................... 12 IMPROVED AIR TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT AND INFRASTRUCTURE USE ........ 14 The EU‟s Single European Sky initiative and SESAR ............................................. 14 SESAR ............................................................................................................................ 14 Operational improvements: AIRE ............................................................................... 16 ECONOMIC / MARKET-BASED MEASURES ............................................................. 16 The EU Emissions Trading System ............................................................................ 16 Anticipated change in fuel consumption and/or CO2 emissions ............................ 17 Expected co-benefits..................................................................................................... 18 SUPPORT TO VOLUNTARY ACTIONS: ACI AIRPORT CARBON ACCREDITATION ............................................................................................................. 18 Anticipated benefits: ...................................................................................................... 19 2. NATIONAL ACTIONS IN IRELAND .............................................................................. 20 [.] 1 INTRODUCTION General approach Ireland is a member of the European Union and of the European Civil Aviation Conference (ECAC). ECAC is an intergovernmental organisation covering the widest grouping of Member States1 of any European organisation dealing with civil aviation. It is currently composed of 44 Member States, and was created in 1955. ECAC States share the view that environmental concerns represent a potential constraint on the future development of the international aviation sector, and together they fully support ICAO‟s on-going efforts to address the full range of these concerns, including the key strategic challenge posed by climate change, for the sustainable development of international air transport. Ireland, like all of ECAC‟s forty-four States, is fully committed to and involved in the fight against climate change, and works towards a resource-efficient, competitive and sustainable multimodal transport system. Ireland recognises the value of each State preparing and submitting to ICAO a State Action Plan on emissions reductions, as an important step towards the achievement of the global collective goals agreed at the 37th Session of the ICAO Assembly in 2010. In that context, it is the intention that all ECAC States submit to ICAO an Action Plan2, regardless of whether or not the 1% de mimimis threshold is met, thus going beyond the agreement of ICAO Assembly Resolution A/37-19. This is the Action Plan of IRELAND. Ireland shares the view of all ECAC States that a comprehensive approach to reducing aviation emissions is necessary, and that this should include: i. emission reductions at source, including European support to CAEP work ii. research and development on emission reductions technologies, including public- private partnerships iii. the development and deployment of low-carbon sustainable alternative fuels, including research and operational initiatives undertaken jointly with stakeholders iv. the optimisation and improvement of Air Traffic Management, and infrastructure use within Europe, in particular through the Single European Sky ATM Research (SESAR), and also beyond European borders, through the Atlantic Initiative for the Reduction of Emissions (AIRE) in cooperation with the US FAA. v. Market-based measures, such as open emission trading schemes (ETS), which allow the sector to continue to grow in a sustainable and efficient manner, recognising that the measures at (i) to (iv) above cannot, even in aggregate, deliver in time the emissions reductions necessary to meet the global goals. This growth becomes possible through the purchase under an ETS of CO2 allowances from other sectors of the economy, where abatement costs are lower than within the aviation sector. In Europe, many of the actions which are undertaken within the framework of this comprehensive approach are in practice taken at a supra-national level, most of them led by the EU. They are reported 1 Albania, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Turkey, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom 2 ICAO Assembly Resolution A37-19 also encourages States to submit an annual report on international aviation CO2 emissions. This is considered by Europe an important task, but one which is different in nature and purpose to the Action Plans, which are strategic in their nature. For that reason, the reporting to ICAO of international aviation CO2 emissions referred to at paragraph 9 of ICAO Resolution A37/19 is not part of this Action Plan, nor of those submitted by other Member States of ECAC. This information will be provided to ICAO separately. 2 in Section 2 of this Action Plan, where Irish involvement in them is described, as well as that of stakeholders. In Ireland, a number of actions are undertaken at the national level, including by stakeholders, in addition to those of a supra-national nature. These national actions are reported in Section 2 of this Plan. In relation to actions which are taken at a supranational level, it is important to note that: The extent of participation will vary from one State and another, reflecting the priorities and circumstances of each State (economic situation, size of its aviation market, historical and institutional context, such as EU/ non EU). The ECAC States are thus involved to different degrees and on different timelines in the delivery of these common actions. When an additional State joins a collective action, including at a later stage, this broadens the effect of the measure, thus increasing the European contribution to meeting the global goals. Nonetheless, acting together, the ECAC States have undertaken to reduce the region‟s emissions through a comprehensive approach which uses each of the pillars of that approach. Some of the component measures, although implemented by some but not all of ECAC‟s 44 States, nonetheless yield emission reduction benefits across the whole of the region (thus for example research, ETS). Current State of aviation in Ireland The Irish aviation and aerospace industry operates within a legislative and regulatory framework established at national, EU and international level. A number of oversight processes exist with the legal system as the overriding entity, including; State